Lieberman Threatens to Filibuster Public Option, Even With Opt-Out

October 27, 2009 — Ron Chusid

Politically it looks like pushing for the public option with opt-out was the best Harry Reid could go for at present. This remains far better than the option pushed by moderates for a trigger instead of an immediate public plan. It is far from certain that even this can pass. Former Democrat Joe Lieberman says he will vote to filibuster the public option even with an opt-out provision. The Senator from the insurance capital of the world is doing all he can to protect the insurance industry. It is also likely to be his last term in the Senate.

I would hope so. If I were an absolutely partisan Democrat instead of a socialist who puts up with the Democrats because there isn’t anything better, I’ve been shocked they haven’t given them all the Bernie Sanders to make a point about public options. 😉

It depends upon how this plays out, but if I had to guess now I suspect that Lieberman will give in on this–after he gets something in return. Regardless of what happens this year, it is getting hard to see how he wins another term.

Well, I’d probably accept that trade if I ran the Democratic Caucus. If Snowe was actually a Democrat instead of a liberal Republican, we’d probably see her making the kind of real shift to the left that Arlen Specter made when he switched parties. As I’ve noted before, she voted against the Bush Administration more times than many Democrats (including Hillary Clinton) on a range of social and security issues. So much so that the RNC tried to ‘Ned Lamont’ her in the primaries twice.

Lieberman is pretty much a neoconservative Republican on a host of economic and security issues. There’s no room for him to move to the right there. Of course, he’s also pro-choice. So that might be too much for the current GOP to accept.